What Exactly are Legal Messenger Services?
At its core, a Seattle legal messenger service is a business that ensures the timely and safe delivery of legal documents to and from law firms, courts, and other legal entities. Legal messenger services are vital to supporting legal professionals and their clients to meet strict deadlines and legal requirements. In Seattle, these services are a particularly valuable resource for attorneys given the bustling pace of city life and the document-heavy nature of the legal profession.
Essentially, serving as your own courier can be inefficient — and potentially disastrous — in the legal world. Too much time can be wasted on in-house delivery, with more important tasks falling by the wayside. There’s also an increased risk of compliance issues, missed deadlines, or other crucial problems, which could negatively impact the attorney’s business, their clients, or both. As such, legal messenger services have become a sensible, reliable method for legal professionals to streamline their operations , reduce stress, and increase efficiency.
Security is one of the major selling points for legal messenger services, especially for sensitive legal documents and packages (and a package received from a court house is always a sensitive matter). Legal messenger services are trained to handle these documents properly and appropriately. For this reason, many legal messenger services are multi-functional. Beyond simply transporting legal materials, other common messenger services include:
More than anything, legal messenger services are experts in their field. These professionals know Seattle inside and out, and they understand how best to get your documents to and from many different locations for the fastest possible delivery. They also have the background and experience to make the best choices possible in the likely event of an unexpected situation or change in plans. Work with a legal messenger service dedicated to making the legal process as efficient as possible.
The Advantages of Hiring Local Legal Messenger Services in Seattle
Seattle legal messenger service offers a wealth of advantages for those conducting business within the city. Their local expertise allows them to provide more related services, whereas a nationwide courier may only be able to provide a handful of services. Seattle legal messenger companies can provide notary services, can assist with the I.D. requirements of the notary, and can also execute documents for you on-site, if needed. You will find that working with a local messenger service provides you with more options like these.
A local Seattle legal messenger service also has the benefit of being close at hand. While an interstate courier service may take two or three days to get something done, a Seattle legal messenger will be able to do it much faster. Many courier services will guarantee delivery of sensitive documents within hours.
Because they are local, many Seattle legal messenger services know the Seattle courthouses and other legal entities well. They know what you need to provide for them, where to go, and oftentimes who to talk to for the best results. This knowledge can help you save time and money.
Documents Handled by Legal Messenger Services
A critical function of a Seattle legal messenger service is the transport of legal documents. Like many of these services, the messenger will provide same day or next day delivery on everything from summonses to court filings. Examples of these documents include:
Complaints
This is the form that an individual will file to start a lawsuit. A Washington attorney will initiate the complaint and the case is filed at a Superior Court. The complaint outlines the facts of the matter, the parties involved in the dispute, and the desired outcome, sometimes called "prayer for relief." The messenger will be responsible for filing the complaint at the appropriate courthouse, as well as serve copies of the complaint upon all other involved parties.
Summons
The summons informs the respondent that a complaint has been filed. A summons shall compel said party to respond in writing within a specific time frame, usually 20 days, and advises that failure to respond may result in a default judgement. After the summons has been filled out by the plaintiff, the legal messenger will shall serve copies to involved parties and file a declaration with the court that the summons has been served.
Court Filings
The messenger will file electronic and manila court documents with the appropriate Seattle-area court, including pleadings and motions. Filing the documents shall be done promptly and with care in order to ensure that the documents are processed as soon as possible.
Subpoenas
A subpoena shall compel a person to testify in a court proceeding. Often, a subpoena issued without much warning can result in a reluctant witness. If this occurs, the legal messenger shall appear at the proceeding and may have to testify, if necessary.
How to Select a Trusted Legal Messenger Service
In evaluating the worthiness of a messenger service, not all of the factors may apply. The following are considerations that should be given the most and least consideration: These criteria can be narrowed down to a smaller list of questions for short listing purposes. A list of offices that your shortlisted services have for dispatch and deliveries is a good sign as it shows that they cover the entire city. In addition, they should have a large enough team to be able to handle your work needs promptly. Be cautious about those who use sub-contractors because they will never be able to stand behind the work performance of the person randomly assigned to your work. A same day service should pickup and deliver within a short amount of time, such as 1 to 3 hours. This is especially true of important documents that must get to the recipient as soon as possible. Those documents should be handled with utmost care. Your service should at all times have the option to call in an emergency order. If you call and get a voicemail during business hours or get an answering service on off hours, that is not a good sign. They should be ready to pick up and deliver immediately if required. Your service should provide you with a unique dispatcher ID code which allows you to track your jobs. You should also receive confirmation in real-time or by email after the job is complete. You should receive a detailed invoice itemizing the name of the sender, recipient, location, date, time, and reason for the request. Also good are the tracking abilities of the service. An account representative should be assigned to you and be responsive to your requests. Ask for several customer references if at all possible. During your interview of the dispatcher, be sure you get an impression of their professionalism. Poor communication by the dispatcher is a sign that the service is unorganized. If a service cannot maintain professionalism with their own staff how can they be expected to provide professional services to their clients? It goes without saying that the costs for using a service need to be a consideration; however, the lowest cost service is seldom the best. It is reasonable to expect that the services you are considering will charge a similar price but if one of them is charging a significant amount more, check to see why. Too low is as dangerous as too high. Remember that you need a legally binding contract with the services that you finally decide to use. All of these considerations point to being able to find a reliable and highly competent legal messenger service in Seattle where their reputation is one of the best in the industry. Finding the right service will support your speedy and efficient business operations.
Legal Regulations for Messenger Services in Seattle
In any city where there is more than one lawyer, there exists a need for various office support services, including messenger services. In the Seattle area, there are many attorney services and legal messenger services that operate out of both Washington, including Tacoma and Olympia, and Oregon, including Portland. Despite the fact that these two states are neighboring states on the West Coast, there are laws and regulations governing the delivery of legal documents as well as other office support services that differ from state to state. Within the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area, legal messenger services are ordinarily regulated through Seattle law, with the Washington State laws also playing a key role.
Legal services regulations vary for each profession. The Washington State Department of Licensing regulates several professions and trades. One research tool that assists attorneys, accountants, and other professionals and business entities in verifying whether a legal services provider is licensed is known as the master license status. It is a compilation of all the businesses and professions one holds a license to operate , which is obtained through the Department of Licensing. You can visit the Washington State Department of Licensing’s website and click on the appropriate buttons to determine whether or not your legal support service provider is currently licensed to operate.
Within the Seattle area, manager licenses are required for any person working for a legal services provider. As a legal professional, it is important to verify that whomever you are allowing access to important business and client records is trustworthy. Without a manager license, that person may not be legally able to manage employees under the legal services provider’s umbrella, and there are strict, non-negotiable consequences when it comes to potential untrustworthy practices. In addition, almost all legal services providers in the state of Washington must also hold a certificate from the Brinkerhoffs Service Company. While the Washington State administrative code grants substantial deference and discretion as to what is required of licensees, most must obey the requirements of the service company when it comes to fulfilling their duties when the client’s interest. If your provider does not meet these requirements, it may be time to find another provider.
The Role of Technology in Legal Messenger Services
In an era where speed and reliability are paramount, the legal industry has benefited significantly from the infusion of modern technology into legal messenger services. The advent of tracking systems, electronic proofs of delivery (PODs), and simplified ordering through online platforms has augmented the arsenal of tools that these services can leverage to meet their clients’ demands for timely and secure document deliveries.
Tracking systems are essential in the legal field, where even a marginal delay can have significant impacts on legal proceedings. State-of-the-art messaging services now employ systems that not only monitor the progress of a delivery in real-time but also provide updates to clients at set intervals via text or email. A system of this kind can act as an effective quality control measure, ensuring that the delivery is on target and can identify potential hiccups even before they occur. This increased reliability can be crucial in scenarios where a court filing has a scheduled time, as well as in other situations that are bound by strict timelines.
Electronic PODs offer a further enhancement in operational efficiency, allowing for a paperless trail of the transaction. Once a delivery is completed, the recipient can sign electronically using the delivery person’s handheld device. This software-programmed signature is stored in the database for future reference, enhancing the level of documentation available for each delivery. This can be an essential feature in dispute situations or where there are discrepancies that require clarification over the details of a transaction.
Online ordering platforms also form a new frontier in the ordering process. They streamline the ordering aspect of the messenger service by allowing clients to place orders at their convenience and according to their preferred schedule. Having access to an online interface with up-to-the-minute data on the status of their order makes it easier for legal firms to effectively manage their practice and provide quick real-time updates to their clients.
Today, these are just a few of the ways in which legal messenger services have increased their effectiveness and broadened the scope of their services through the incorporation of technological innovations. There are many more. Messaging services that continue to adopt such tools as the ever-advancing capabilities of the drone will be ideally positioned to meet the perceived and actual needs of their clients.
Success Story: Effective Legal Messenger Deliveries in Seattle
One recent success story comes from the law office of Jameson & Morgan, who regularly utilizes our legal messenger services. They called us one day in a state of panic—the attorney they represented was flying out that evening for a one-week trial, and certain court filings had to be delivered the same day or they would miss a deadline. The firm had utilized several different delivery methods on previous occasions, but this time they needed to ensure delivery without failure. Their usual court runner was unable to assist them last minute. They reached out to us and within an hour and a half we had the documents in hand and were on our way to the courthouse.
Once the documents were properly filed with the court, we delivered the filing receipts back to the firm’s office to confirm the timely filing for their client . A few days later we received an email from the firm’s managing partner thanking us for our service. He explained that due to the tightness of the filing deadline, if we had not been able to assist them the case would have been severely delayed with great negative impact on their client. That is the beauty of utilizing a company like The Messenger Group. Because we specialize in legal messenger service, we offer reliable service at reasonable prices, which businesses—including law firms—are able to budget into their operational costs. By outsourcing their courier needs, businesses have help on hand when things get tight and can be assured that their most important deliveries will make it to their respective destinations on time, every time.